A self-driven mortar or mortar carrier vehicle (mortar carrier) is a weapon system comprising a mortar assembled in a vehicle like the one described in ES 1078083 U (ESTRELLA MOLINA, Julio), in US 20120024135 A1 (KOHNEN Norbert et al.), in US 20050241468 A1 (Borgwarth Dennis W. et al.) or in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,781 (Ruf Walter). The vehicle comprises a cargo area adapted for receiving the mortar.
In some cases, firing is performed with the mortar placed directly on the transport vehicle like in U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,852 A (Fraud Michel et al.). This requires suitable reinforcement of the suspension and cargo parts of the transport vehicle, the inclusion of elastic devices for absorbing the recoil and the forces generated by firing the mortar on the vehicle (like in U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,852, Fraud Michel et al.), and/or hydraulic jacks or supports for fixing the vehicle to the ground like in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,781 (Ruf Walter).
In other cases the mortar has two positions, a traveling position, i.e., the mortar is placed on the support plate to be transported while the vehicle is traveling; and a firing position, in which the mortar leaves the cargo area of the vehicle and is located in the firing position on the ground, as described in ES 1078083 U (ESTRELLA MOLINA, Julio) and in US 20120024135 A1 (KOHNEN Norbert et al.).
In this latter case (US 20120024135 A1), the mortar barrel is coupled to a base plate of the mortar and to a supporting device which in turn is coupled to the cargo area of the transport vehicle mechanically or by means of articulated arms. The plate or supporting device is coupled to the vehicle mechanically for positioning the mortar between a traveling position, in which the mortar is placed for transport with the vehicle, and a firing position, in which the mortar is located for firing a shell from outside of the vehicle.
The base plate of the mortar in its deployed position is a base plate of a part which is driven into the ground on which the mortar barrel is placed, like in US 20120024135 A1 (KOHNEN Norbert et al.), where it is necessary to prepare the ground below the base plate to bury or drive it into said ground. The base plate of the mortar is coupled to the vehicle mechanically or by means of articulated arms like in ES 2203810 T3 (WINTER UDO ING MAG et al.), which causes a large part of the forces generated by firing the mortar to be transmitted to the vehicle.
As the aforementioned systems do not satisfactorily resolve the effect of the forces generated by firing the mortar on the vehicle, they must be provided with elements for absorbing recoil, hydraulic jacks, supports, or other elements for fixing the vehicle to the ground, structural reinforcements of the vehicle to withstand the transferred forces or accept that the necessary maintenance of the mortar carrier vehicle is more substantial or that the service life of the mortar carrier vehicle assembly is reduced as the entire assembly is subjected to the forces generated by all the firing of the mortar during operations.